Langhorne Slim, Malachai DeLorenzo and Paul Defiglia, aka Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles. They played Toronto's Legendary Horseshoe Tavern June 18, 2008.
This band is good, and they clearly enjoy playing together... They made mistakes and laughed about them and they laughed at each other a lot. It's more fun when you get the impression the band is having fun, which these guys were. Most of all, you can really tell that The War Eagles get a big kick out of Slim.
Near the end of the show they started playing a new -and unfinished- song that Slim quickly messed up, but when he tried to skip it and move on to something they all knew, Malachai shouted out "Stop being a baby and play it," which they did, and it was great.
A couple of times Slim was left alone on-stage to perform solo, which was beautiful. He doesn't have one of those Jeff Buckley voices where you hear the first note and are blown away by how pure and perfect it is, but his voice is really incredible. It sneaks up on you a bit, cuffs you on the back of your head. His stage presence is undeniable; he's a captivating performer, kind of like had David Bowie been a busker.
I commented in my review of their album how great I thought Malachai DeLorenzo's drumming is, and live he's even more impressive. He really must be one of the very best drummers working today. (I've never seen someone beat the crap out of their kit so savagely with brushes.) But I was probably remiss in not also singling out Paul Defiglia's bass playing. He's amazing. He played this really bizarre bowed solo near the end of the show that seemed almost atonal at the start, but morphed into something really great and unique. Pretty haunting.
I know these guys play shows with The Avett Brothers pretty often, and I can't think of a double bill I'd rather see. That would be unbelievable.
No comments:
Post a Comment